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Police Chief Among 4 Indicted in Boy’s Death at Gun Show

BOSTON — A Massachusetts police chief, two Connecticut men and a gun club were indicted Thursday in the case of an 8-year-old boy killed by a submachine gun he was firing at a gun show.

The boy, Christopher K. Bizilj of Ashford, Conn., accidentally shot himself in the head while taking his turn with a 9-millimeter Micro Uzi on Oct. 26 in Westfield, Mass. He was accompanied by his father, an emergency room doctor, who, the authorities say, had chosen the Uzi for him to fire.

Massachusetts law generally makes it legal for children to fire a weapon if they have parental consent and are supervised by a certified instructor. But that does not apply to machine guns, which may not be fired by anyone under 18.

“There is no exception that would allow a machine gun to be furnished to an 8-year-old, with or without parental consent,” said William M. Bennett, the Hampden County district attorney, who obtained the indictments from a grand jury.

The accident occurred at the Machine Gun Shoot and Firearms Expo, held at the Westfield Sportsman’s Club. The show was sponsored by COP Firearms and Training, which is owned by Edward B. Fleury, the police chief in Pelham, a western Massachusetts town of some 1,400 people about 30 miles from Westfield.

Mr. Fleury, 51, who has been on sick leave since the accident, is charged with involuntary manslaughter, as are the Westfield club and the two men who the authorities say supplied the Uzi: Domenico Spano of New Milford, Conn., and Carl Guiffre of Hartford.

In addition, Mr. Fleury and the club were each indicted on four counts of furnishing a machine gun to a person under 18. Prosecutors said they knew of at least three children other than Christopher who fired automatic weapons at the show.

Conviction on the manslaughter charges carries punishment of up to 20 years in prison, and on the weapons charges up to 10 years on each count.

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A woman who identified herself on the telephone as Mr. Fleury’s daughter said he was ill and unavailable for comment.

His lawyer, Charles F. Ksieniewicz, said he and Mr. Fleury were “disappointed” by the indictment, but declined to comment further.

Mr. Spano did not return a message left at his home. Nor did Mr. Guiffre, whom public records list as vice president of Provost’s Precision Pistols in Weatogue, Conn., and former assistant treasurer of the Metacon Gun Club in Simsbury, Conn.

At a news conference where he announced the charges, Mr. Bennett said Dr. Bizilj (pronounced bah-SEEL) had chosen the Micro Uzi for Christopher to shoot because it was small and, the father thought, would therefore be easier to handle.

“He did not realize its small size actually made it more dangerous,” Mr. Bennett said, adding, “Although it might appear a heavier or longer weapon would be more dangerous, the small size of the weapon together with the rapid rate of fire made it more likely that an 8-year-old would lose control and the muzzle of the weapon would come close to his face, which is what happened here.”

As he fired, Mr. Bennett told The A.P., Christopher was supervised only by a 15-year-old.

Massachusetts already has some of the nation’s strictest gun laws, but Christopher’s death has brought a call for tighter regulation, including that at gun shows, which fall under the jurisdiction of local law enforcement.

Terrel Harris, a spokesman for the state public safety secretary, Kevin Burke, said the department had been “working on seeing what statutes and regulations we might be able to tighten and strengthen,” specifically involving “machine guns, juveniles in possession of guns, and gun clubs.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A24 of the New York edition with the headline: Police Chief Among 4 Indicted in Boy’s Death at Gun Show. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe